This invention concerns a rehabilitation machine having its feed and discharge of materials at its leading end in the direction of advance of the working train.
To be more exact, the invention concerns a rehabilitation machine able to receive metalling and mixture of aggregate materials necessary for rehabilitation works from storage wagons coupled to the leading end of the rehabilitation machine.
The rehabilitation machine according to the invention is also able to discharge materials which cannot be re-used, after the rehabilitation work, in cooperation with the storge wagons, which are then employed to hold such materials.
This provides the advantage of having the end of the rehabilitation machine, facing the rehabilitated portion of line, wholly free for coupling to a machine for reinforcing and, more generally, for finishing the rehabilitated road bed.
Rehabilitation machines suitable for excavation work and for laying a mixture of aggregate materials and depositing new metalling are known in the prior art.
Such machines are very complex and expensive and consist, in their order of forward movement along the railway line, of a motive unit, a main unit to excavate and lay materials and a satellite unit to finish the railway line.
To the satellite unit is connected a train of containers, which are generally operated with portals, to feed materials to the main unit.
A train of storage wagons to hold materials discharged by the machine is coupled to the main unit at the head of the machine.
This lay-out entails a plurality of drawbacks. The feed at one end and the discharge at the other end form a considerable constructional problem since they have to pass over the satellite unit and motive unit in the delivery of materials to their usage positions.
The train of containers at one end and the train of storage wagons at the other end lead to the creation of a train of a great length.
Moreover, a long train of containers on the satellite unit end hinders early use of the rehabilitated line by successive trains.
The present applicants have designed, tested and embodied a rehabilitation machine able to overcome all the problems of the pior art.